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Hundreds out of pocket as eBay trader goes bust

One of the biggest Australian sellers on eBay has gone bust and
its owner has fled to China, leaving hundreds of buyers out of
pocket of hundreds of thousands of dollars, it is estimated.

The Queensland-based seller, known on eBay as ebusiness-supplies
and registered in Australia as EBS International Pty Ltd, was wound
up on Friday and is under external administration, according to the
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Hundreds of eBay users around the country who bought exercise
equipment, pocket bikes, quad bikes, electric guitars, furniture
and other household items from EBS International before it went
bust now have little chance of receiving their items or obtaining a
refund from the seller.

Those who paid for items using PayPal, which is owned by eBay,
will be entitled to refunds through a new fund set up specifically
to deal with this incident, PayPal managing director Andrew Pipolo
said.

Queensland Police confirmed its fraud department was
investigating 12 complaints made against the company but there was
no evidence of criminality so far. ASIC does not say whether it is
investigating a company unless it has taken action.

The liquidator, Terry van de Velde, of SV Partners, said his
examination of the company was in its early stages so he could not
comment on eBay users' suspicions that the owners were
fraudsters.

He said he would be sending letters to creditors advising them
of the situation and a meeting would be held within the next 10
days.

"The director of the company is over in China at the moment so I
haven't actually spoken with him; I've done it through one of the
former directors," he said.

"The reason they are telling me is that they sent money over to
an agent in China which was for the order for all these goods that
are outstanding at the moment and that's what caused the problem -
the agent hasn't sent the goods, the company's owed a substantial
amount of money by the Chinese agent and I'm told the directors
over there are trying to sort it out."

In the past three months, ebusiness-supplies sold over $1
million worth of goods. It is the seventh biggest Australian eBay
user in terms of the number of items sold.

eBay was made aware of complaints about the seller weeks ago but
did not disable the user account.

Over 450 eBay users who bought items from the seller - often at
a price seemingly below cost - have left the company negative
feedback on the website in the last 30 days.

On April 1, EBS International announced to customers it was
"under new management". An analysis of its eBay feedback comments
suggests that around this time, orders began backing up.

On July 7, following a barrage of customer complaints, the
company said an "unexpected problem with the shipment of containers
which was expected to arrive in June or July" meant orders were
late.

It promised those who ordered before June 1 would get a full
refund. All orders placed after June 15 would get their items at
the end of July.

But now, ebusiness-supplies has no items listed for sale on eBay
and has stopped replying to emails from nervous buyers. It does not
appear to have followed through with any refunds and the company's
listed phone number has been disconnected.

Pipolo said PayPal users who were customers of EBS International
and had not received a refund from the company would be contacted
"in the next few days".